National coach assures Mattias Skjelmose remains Denmark's leader for Zurich: "He abandoned to make sure he'll be ready for the World Championships"

The news of Mattias Skjelmose's crash and subsequent abandon from the Tour de Luxembourg were not something the Denmark's national coach Anders Lund hoped to read this afternoon with queen stage of the 2.Pro race taking place in the Grand Duchy of Luxembourg. But luckily, it turns out the Lidl-Trek rider escaped relatively unscathed and already aims for Zurich.

"He is doing well under the circumstances, so normally he is still captain," says the national coach with relief, when approached by Feltet.dk. Regardless, Lund is ready to change plans if the injuries are worse than expected.

"Of course, a plan B can be made, but there is no doubt that it would be a severe weakening of the team if Mattias was either unable to ride the World Championships or was tagged."

"But he has written to me now that he is OK and that he resigned to make sure he was ready for the WC. He doesn't want to risk anything in that connection, so he expects to be on the bike again tomorrow. Everything that came from him was positive in relation to the sad news that he had crashed," assures Lund.